Seeing as it's 2009 and because I'm pretty bored at work, I've decided to compile a new and up to date Guide to leveling Cloth craft. This will be based on my own experiences and ffxiah prices. I strongly urge only crafting when you are within 5 levels of the items max skill level so you gain skill ups on fails as well as successes. I am building this guide in the hopes of giving you the path with least loss and most opportunity to profit. This is NOT a guide on power leveling your craft over night. This is a gradual process and it took me 5 years to hit 100.

Please take the time to do research for your servers prices as they may be very different from Diabolos'.

Before begining tossing money into your new job you should know the following: The Cloth guild is loced in Windurst Woods @G-12

A NPC by the name of Ponono will be giving you your guild tests every 10 levels (though you can take the test at levels 8, 18, 28 etc)

Another important NPC is Terude-Harude, he will give you advanced synthesis support which raises your skill level a theoretical 3 levels and costs a small fee of gil.

Other NPC's inside the building give a free version of synth support (buffs you 1 crafting level), one takes items for guild points (used in getting crafting gear) and some tell you synth recipies.

There is also a guild shop next door that will sell Synthesis materials you may need from time to time. Check them early and often as many people with local mules will be buying up their supplies as quickly as they open their doors.

Amateur Rank

Skill 0-1Grass Thread= Wind Crystal Synth Yagudo Bead Necklace ~Go to Gideus and round up ever last **** yag you can find and then blizzaga them or do an AoE WS. You will hit level one quickly but dont leave until you've done many many stacks of thread as you will need it next.

Skill 11-15Red Grass Thread = Lightning crystal synth Red Moko Grass x2 ~Go back to Giddeus! This time bring harvesting sickles which can be purchased from an NPC in each town. They will break so bring a few stacks. Also if you farm your own crystals from the elementals in Delkfuts tower you will be banking quite a lot of profit.

Skill 15-16Red Grass Cloth = Earth crystal synth Red Grass Thread x3 ~Keep on a mule for later if you wanna try to make yourself some Baron's gear in later levels or sell for 60K a stack! Congrats you can officialy support yourself forever if you have the calm attitude to farm giddeus for a living.

Skill 16-19Linen Thread = Lightning crystal synth Flax Flower x2 ~Find out which nation is in 1st place, their airship dock shop will sell these on the cheap! If its not your home nation then find a friend who belongs to them and give him some cash to buy you A LOT of them.

~Go to the AH and buy or make yourself a cotton cape and trade to guild master for your next rank

Skill 22-27Heko Obi = Earth crystal synth Cotton Cloth x2 Grass thread ~Cotton cloth stacks literally sell for as much as a stack of raw cotton balls. Buy the cloth off the AH and let some other suckers take the loss in gil for making the cloth for you. NPC Obi's for recooping some of you gil.

Skill 27-28(30)Sub Craft Skil of 8 Bonecraft Fly Lure = Earth crystal synth Chocobo Feather Bat fang Animal Glue ~The materials are cheap but you need to have atleast 3 bonecraft so you can still skill up on failed synths. This can tak you all the way to 30 but you can stop at 28 and take the next guild test if you want. You can bazaar these overnight while you sleep in the fishermans guild for 2K a pop after youve filled your AH with them.

Skill 27-30 (Alternative for Windurstian Citizens) Windurstian Slops = Earth crystal synth Linen thread Linen cloth Freesword's Slops ~You can make the linen products yourself and use conquest points for the slops and these sell nicely for about 6K a pop.

~Go take your next test which will require one of your Heko Obi's

Rank Novice

Skill (28/29)-31Soil Hachimaki = Wind crystal synth Linen Cloth x2 ~It's a cheap synth to get you into the 30's if you stopped yourself last rank at 28. NPC off. You dont have to do this step if you're allready 30.

Skill 30-35Wool Thread = Lightning crystal synth Sheeps wool ~Head out to the crag of Dem where you can farm sheep and Elementals all day, you might even get lucky and catch stray mary.

Skill 35-37Wool Cloth = Earth crystal synth Wool Thread x3 ~Save these for later or start making en mass and selling for 30K a stack.

~Trade in one of your feather collars to the guild for your next rank.

Rank Apprentice

Skill 38-42Bag of Bird Fletchings = Wind crystal synth Bird feather x2 ~Sell on AH in jueno or sandy and then bazaar them while you sleep in the wood working guild room.

Skill 42-45Velvet Cloth = Earth crystal synth Silk thread wool thread x2 ~Farm the silk from crawlers or buy from AH. you can sell this for 22K a stack but I would recomend keeping it.

Optional 45-47Silver Thread = Earth crystal synth Silver ingot silk thread ~This is a great profit synth if you have gold smithing leveled to atleast 6 (capps at 11) And it gets you closer to 48.

Skill (45/47)-48Wool Hose = Earth crystal synth Wool Thread Wool Cloth x2 Ram Leather ~You can farm the ram's hides and make the leather, now would be a good time to start leveling sub crafts such as leather anyway, or buy them from the AH. Just use this synth to get to 48 as its the cheapest option. NPC the loss or try your luck on the AH.

Skill 4?-52 Super Cheap AlternativeInsect Fletchings= Wind crystal synth Insect wing x2 ~If instead of making silk for profit/preparation you wish to just level up on the cheap I would recomend doing these. The wings sell on the AH for next to nothing and you can do them from mid 40's on to 52 since fails wont cost you much.

Skill 51-53Silk Cloth = Earth crystal synth Silk Thread x3 ~This can get expensive quick so sell a few stacks if you absolutely NEED to but try to hold onto these bad boys. This is a very proftiable synth but you will need silk cloth later.

Skill 53-57Karakul Cloth = Earth crystal synth Karakul thread x3 ~This one is a bit expensive but you can make 66% of the cost back. Doing the wool to thread is a much bigger waste so skip that step and once again let some other sucker do it for you. Sell on AH for 100K a stack.

Skill 57-60(can stop at 58 if you want)Field Hose = Earth crystal synth Wool Cloth x2 Wool Thread Linen Cloth ~This was the cheapest/simplest synth at this point and they each sell for 10K on the ah so if you have time to AH them you will make a tiny profit or break even.

~Buy a Red Cape on the AH (much cheaper than synthing) and trade it in for you next test

Rank Craftsman

*NOTICE* Past this point you will only get .1 skill ups and things get expensive quick. This would be a good time to go back to some of your profit synths i have pointed out to build up some capitol funds.

Skill (58/60)-63Hunters Cotton = Earth crystal synth Cotton Thread x3 Ponze of carapace powder Distilled water ~Buy the water from vendors and the other two from ah (remember, making your own cotton thread is a loss and waste of gil) This item sells on the ah for 5K which is a profit but it does sell slowly. I also chose this one because it's still cheaper than starting the silk road just yet.

Skill 63-65Hyo = Earth crystal synth Velvet cloth Cotton thread Iron ingot ~You can use this synth to get you to 64 atleast or take it to 65 for a low loss. NPC these or try to sell on AH (not profitable but low loss)

Skill (64/65)- 68Silk Headband = Earth crystal synth Silk cloth Loop of Carbon Fiber ~Welcome to the silk road! You can try AH'ing these for a tiny tiny profit or just NPC them and keep moving. Stop at 68 because its a waste to take this to 69 when a cheap synth is just around the corner.

~Go trade a Wool Doublet for your next rank up!

Rank Artisan

Skill 68-72Black Chocobo Fletchings = Wind crystal synth Black Chocobo Feather x2 ~NPCs at the chocobo stables will sell these at a rate making this synth MUCH cheaper than other options at this point. Try to AH a few stacks of them and then Bazaar over night while you sleep in the wood workers guil in sandoria to sell more.

Skill 72-78Rainbow Thread = Lightning crystal synth Spiders web x2 ~Fill up on materials and go get the free synth support and do this synth until you are level 73. After that you can feel free to synth out in the field as you kill these things. Spiders outside Whitegate have a great drop rate, are easy to kill at 75 anything and you can skill up a weapon while getting materials (ohh and beastmen/kindred seals can drop too) you cant loose at this synth weather you farm your own materials or buy them for 2K a pop at the AH.

Skill 78-80Rainbow Cloth = Earth crystal synth Rainbow Thread x3 ~I would HIGHLY recomend you hold onto these if you wanna keep leveling now. But, if you wanna make some cash you can start farming spiders and selling stacks of cloth @ 200K a pop. This is excellent money but the more you sell the more you will have to re-farm for later synths.

~Go trade a Silk coat in for your next test

Rank Adept

Skill 80-82Puk Fletchings = Wind crystal synth Puk Wing x2 ~A VERY cheap synth. You could stop doing rainbow synths at 68 if it's getting to expenssive and do this synth all the way to 82. AH stacks or once again bazaar in wood working guild for arrow makers to buy.

~From here we hit a slight bump

~The cheapest skill up now would be Wamoura silk thread Skill 82-88Wamoura Thread = Lightning crystal synth Wamoura Cocoon x2 ~The cocoons sell checp on ah but rediculously fast. You will be lucky to beat out other crafters more than a couple times a day.

~However, with the level differencce you will get many breaks; I would suggest doing a rather expenssive synth to get to 84 first

Skill 82-84Rainbow Headband = Earth crystal synth Rainbow Cloth Loop of Carbon Fiber ~Try to AH these and NPC what you can afford to and just get to 84 and stop.

~From 84 on you camp your **** at the AH and grab every Wamoura cocoon that comes up. And make Thread to 88 and then cloth to 89. Both of which sell for profit (thread is more profitable than cloth so once you hit 89 stop sything and sell it all).

~When you reach 88 you can trade in a Arhat's Hakama for your last test! Keep pushing to 89 on the Wamoura cloth though as it's one of the last few cheap synths.

Rank Veteran!!!

~First off, pat yourself on the back and maybe enjoy a celebratory piece of pie, youve earned it.

Skill (88/89)-93Giant Bird Fletchings = Wind crystal synth Giant bird plume x2 ~These sell on the AH and you get some of your cash back but expect loss from here on out.

Skill 93-94Sub Craft Leather 24Errant Slops = Earth crystal synth Velvet cloth x2 Silk clothx2 Rainbow thread Ram Leather ~You can sell these on ah to make back about 33% of the cost and NPC what you can afford to loose.

Skill (94/96)-99Al Zahbi Sash = Earth crystal synth Rainbow thread Gold Thread Karakul thread Wamoura silk thread Marid Hair x2 ~This is the cheapest synth to 99 and can get very cheap if you produce your own rainbow and gold thread. Camp the AH for marid hairs and store them on a mule ( dont stack ;_;) for the big push to 99.

~When you hit 99 it is very important that you market yourself. Post on Alla, Killing ifrit, ffxiah and in your bazaar message that you are looking to perform level 100 synths. I garuntee they're are a few ls's out there that will want Cursed Dalmatica's synthed and do no have a clothcrafter in house. I got I got .4 skill total by helping others make their dalmy's.

Rate up for effort, but there's quite a few cheaper options there ^_^;; For starters could throw out that wamoura cocoons and karakul thread are indeed available from guild, often cheap. And if they're not cheap right that moment, they likely will be in a few days. And I'd go straight from bird fletchings to insect fletchings, and start black chocobo fletchings as soon as humanely possible (probably server dependant, they were nice little profit on Valefor last time I checked).

Nice guide Busa. You took a pretty similar route as I did in my clothcraft guide (see below). As Sharain said, I jumped to black chocobo fletchings ASAP. I took them all the way from 63 to 72 and didn't regret it.

Also, I took wamoura silk thread all the way up to 88 because that gave me just about enough threads to craft two levels worth of cloth to get to 90 (I'm not sure if you thought the cap on wamoura silk cloth was 89, but as someone who took the synth to 90 I can tell you that it at least goes that high). I bought all of my wamoura cocoons from the guild for ~600g or less, but that was right after they came out with ToAU, which drove the AH price on the up to 3000+ gil.

As for the karakul cloth, I tried that as well but found that the products just didn't sell on the AH on Caitsith. I guess that's server dependant, but just a heads up to others who may think they can make a some cash - it might be slower than you expect, if it sells at all.

Thanks for your personal experiences with cloth and the kind words guys! Im gonna take another look at it the next time I have a bunch of down time at work and try to offer as many alternatives in each rank. Perhaps a 'best path to take to try and make money if you can wait for things to sell' and a 'bare bones cheapest option'.

Another proponent of Blk. Choco fletchings. Ever since they added Black Choco feathers to Choco Digging zones the prices have dropped considerably on the AH, to the point of being not uncommonly 50% of what you'd pay to a vendor. This is on Diabolos at least.

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90 BLM ~ Full AFv5 84 DRK 15 WAR

Official Proclaimer of Proclamations

"I hear if you close your eyes and hold your breath...but try to push out air anyway REALLY hard....you'll see a bear humping a sheep." ~XvExodusvX

Excellent guide. I'm leveling Clothcraft on a mule, currently 22 and I'm working on the Leathercraft sub which is at 32. I also plan to do the same thing on another mule, just vice versa (Leather main, CC sub) so this guide should come in handy pretty much two times over.